I was asked to do a talk at a local W.I. (Women's Institute) and the request was to demo a Christmas decoration - some people like to take part, others like to just watch. Personally I would rather run a small workshop than talking a lot, so its nice to incorporate them both.
Anyway, I decided to do some decoupaged shells that could be used as both Christmas gifts and decoration.
First of all I popped along to my local fishmonger - Bell Fishmongers in Carlisle - and picked up some scallop shells. If you don't have a local fishmonger that might do this for you, you can buy them from Amazon easily enough (https://link.amazon/B01sdFMaM)
The shells were nice and clean but do have some colour variations which I didn't want to show through the napkins I was going to use, so I gave them a coat of white acrylic paint, and as I am super impatient I gave them a blast with the hair dryer to dry them off ready for the next stage.
The next part for to choose a nice Christmas napkin - this is difficult for me as I change my mind so often, but in the end I chose a tartan one and a gold star one.
My glue of choice is ModPodge as I like the glossy finish, but you can use a regular PVA if you have one.
The 'pearl' is a Ferrero Rocher chocolate, I have attached this into the shell with a glue dot rather than anything more permanent, meaning the shell can be re-used as a little trinket dish or something once the chocolate has been scoffed!
And these are the amazing shells that the W.I group made... everyone had a go and seemed to thoroughly enjoy it!
If you would like to make these yourself, then the video is here....
Do tag me on the Socials if you make one - Sooz in The Shed over all of them...
All these links above are affiliated so I will earn a few pennies from Amazon if you buy via them, but it doesn't cost you a bean :)
